Crypto super PAC plans to spend $20 million

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The cryptocurrency industry is preparing to invest big in the medium term.

A group of crypto-financiers said on Friday it was launching a super PAC that aims to spend more than $20 million to back congressional candidates ahead of the November election. Backers include a senior executive at digital currency trading platform FTX, as well as SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund run by former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci that is trying to set up a bitcoin investment fund. .

The group, dubbed GMI PAC, said it has already attracted $5.3 million in contributions which it will use to support candidates and members of Congress “who work to empower consumers and innovators to create and to use next-generation technologies and services here in America.”

“This is long overdue,” CMS Holdings co-founder Dan Matuszewski, a member of the group’s board of directors, said Friday. “GMI PAC is the campaigning arm of the crypto community and we are here to stay.”

GMI’s launch comes as well-heeled crypto startups and leading venture capital firms step up lobbying to influence laws and regulations impacting the booming $1.6 trillion market in trade last year before experiencing a significant decline in recent weeks. Industry associations mount aggressive campaigns to fight policies that would suppress trade. A growing number of politicians on both sides of the aisle have started courting the industry and crypto enthusiasts for support.

GMI said its founding donors and board of directors include Matuszewski, FTX Digital Markets CEO Ryan Salame (the head of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary) and Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer. Other backers include investment firms Multicoin Capital and Blockchain Capital.

More crypto-focused political committees are likely in sight.

Senior executives at FTX – one of the biggest digital currency trading platforms – are the main backers of the new super PAC Protect Our Future which is expected to invest in the Democratic races this year. Its initial donors include FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as Nishad Singh, the company’s chief engineering officer. He plans to spend $10 million to start up.

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